What's with all the GPS hatred? I use GPS-assisted devices all the time, especially when I'm in new areas, and they've been extremely helpful in my experience. I guess that's just not as interesting as blindly bashing everyone who uses them with a brush the size of Kansas. Never mind that there have been people driving where they shouldn't have long before the first GPS satellite was ever launched. In my experience driving prowess has far more to do with the culture of the folks doing driving rather than the specific technologies they employ while doing so. Compared to someplace like India I'd say Americans drive surprisingly well, even those who are cursed with a mind-numbing GPS stuck to their dash.
Who said anything about hating GPS's? At least I have been using one since the very first hand held one became commercially available.
All that was said essentially is when a device like GPS is used without taking extra care to maintain situational and locational awareness, independent of what the device shows, bad things can happen. The comment was mostly about people who loose situational awareness and still go on either unaware or unwanting to check or both, and those that blindly trust numbers that show up in the way of e.g. speed on a GPS device. It was most certainly not about everyone that uses GPS, or even the entire GPS technology itself.
As for the technology and dependence on it for critical missions potentially without any fallback or capability to crosscheck with independent source of input, that is an entirely different discussion, and a lively one that has been going on airliners.net, as I mentioned earlier in this thread. Naturally, since with RNAV and the NEXTGEN nav systems coming on line this is more of a life and death issue for folks out there in airliners.net, rather than a
gee cool toy to play with, as is the case with us railfans. See
this airliners.net thread, if you are curious. Very informative and fascinating discussion.
I don't believe that the native driving ability of anyone has any relevance to this discussion. This is mostly about navigating ability and forgetting to keep in mind the accuracy or lack thereof that is inherent in the technology and device being used.